ADELLE ONYANGO SPEAKS ON THE TRADITIONAL DEMANDS THAT ENDED HER MARRIAGE

Renowned media personality and podcaster Adelle Onyango has disclosed the reasons behind the end of her marriage to Falgun Bhojak.

Adelle entered the union with Bhojak, whom she married in a private ceremony at Nairobi’s Zereniti venue on July 28, 2017, with a clear, non-negotiable expectation: all Christmases would be spent with her family. A self-proclaimed “loud feminist” and “nothing traditional,” Onyango believed her partner understood her.

However, a growing disconnect emerged. She said that their apartment never felt like a home, a feeling that eventually extended to the marriage itself. It became clear their visions for the future were incompatible. She recounted a moment when her ex-husband to her, “You refuse to give me the three things that make a marriage. You don’t want to give me a child. You wouldn’t take my surname, and you stopped wearing your ring.” 

Exhausted, Onyango said her then husband was right, “All I could whisper was, I can’t do this anymore. My marriage was over, and the divorce wasn’t those amicable ones that you see in the movies. Mine was drenched in drama, with family calling and saying, ‘Well, if he didn’t hit you, why are you leaving?’ I remember another family member saying, ‘You will never find another man more devoted to you than your husband.’”

She also revealed it was difficult maintaining her public persona while navigating a private divorce, “It was the hardest time. I wasn’t sleeping. I’d stopped eating so much that I lost so much weight, and I looked so frail and because of my work that involves small talk, smiles, performances, being in front of crowds, I was losing energy and the little that I had needed to take me through my therapy sessions and meetings with lawyers.”

The divorce process finalised, without children or shared assets to split, she still incurred financial costs. In a past social media post, she said her legal fees were approximately Sh200,000.